Assessment Notes

Justification

Tremellogaster surinamensis is a South American sequestrate species. Even though there are only seven records available, it is likely to be very under-recorded and the global population size is estimated at 35,000 individuals. It may be subjected to some habitat loss through deforestation, particularly in Colombia, but rates do not meet the thresholds for threatened categories. Therefore, the species is assessed as Least Concern (LC).

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Taxonomic notes

This is the type and only species in the Tremellogaster genus, established based on its morphological characteristics, but since confirmed in phylogenetic studies (Wilson et al. 2012).

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Geographic range

This species is known from the northern part of South America, from Suriname, Guyana, Colombia (Amazonas and Caquetá) and Venezuela (Franco-Molano et al. 2005).

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Population and Trends

Tremellogaster surinamensis is known from at least seven sites: three in Guyana (GBIF.org 2023), one in Suriname, at least two in Colombia (described for two districts) and one in Venezuela. However, the number of known sites in these countries is not documented and is likely larger. This species is considered uncommon, both in Guyana (Linder 1930) and Colombia (Franco-Molano et al. 2005), and since it is known from local indigenous people, has a wide distribution in northern South America and has inconspicuous fruitbodies, it is assumed to be very under-recorded. Therefore, a large multiplier is applied for total number of sites (x 500) and following guidelines by Dahlberg and Mueller (2011), the population size is estimated at around 35,000 individuals, assuming 10 mature individuals exist per site. There may be some population declines mainly in Colombia and to a lesser extent in Venezuela through habitat loss, but is not expected to be very high across the whole range of the species.

Population Trend: Decreasing

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Habitat and Ecology

Tremellogaster surinamensis is a sequestrate species that grows on soil, solitarily or gregariously, and is presumed to be ectomycorrhizal (Tedersoo et al. 2009). It was found on sandy soil, near a swamp in Guyana (Linder 1930) and in mature forests in Colombia (Franco-Molano et al. 2005).

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Threats

Since mature forests are a habitat for this species, deforestation caused by cattle ranching, agricultural expansion (namely coca cultivation) and mining could present a threat to this species (Gonzalez-Gonzalez et al. 2021). World Resources Institute (2023) shows a percentage of tree cover loss (30% canopy density) of 4% for Venezuela and below 2% in Guyana and Suriname between 2001 and 2021. Colombia shows the higher levels of deforestation for this period (6%), which corresponds to 15% in 50 years (3 generation period for ectomycorrhizal species following Dahlberg and Mueller 2011), assuming a continuing rate of forest loss.

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Conservation Actions

Habitat protection, particularly of mature forests in Colombia, is important to prevent population declines for this species in this region. More search efforts are needed to better estimate number of sites and population size for Tremellogaster surinamensis, as well as research into host and habitat preference to help evaluate potential threats.

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Use and Trade

It is known and avoided by Colombian indigenous communities, who associate it with skin mycosis (Franco-Molano et al. 2005).

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Source and Citation

Cunha, S.P. & Gonçalves, S.C. 2025. Tremellogaster surinamensis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2025: e.T266001697A266019298. Accessed on 22 November 2025.

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• Country occurrence